1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print system, a print server, a print control method, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with a print control program. More specifically, the present invention relates to a print system including a print server and a plurality of image forming apparatuses, a print server that stores a print job and transmits the stored print job in response to a request from an image forming apparatus, a print control method executed in the print server, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with a print control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing method is known, in which a print job is stored in a print server, and an image forming apparatus such as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) downloads the print job from the print server and then executes the print job to form an image. This printing method is generally called pull printing. In a state in which a plurality of MFPs are installed, the user can select any one of the MFPs for pull printing.
When a print job includes a large number of sheets of paper to be printed, it takes a long time to complete the print job with a single MFP. Therefore a plurality of MFPs may share a single print job and execute the job.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-103966 describes an image forming system including a server device that manages print data and a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected to the print server for processing a print job provided by the print server. The server device includes splitting means for, if print data is not split, splitting the print data into a plurality of print jobs in accordance with an index value of the processing time and transmission means for, when a request for print data is received from the image forming apparatuses, transmitting one of the print jobs related to the print data to an image forming apparatus that requests the print data. The image forming apparatuses include request means for requesting print data from the sever device and execution means for executing processing of the print job received in response to the request for print data and transmitting a notice to the server device to indicate that the processing of the print job is completed. The transmission means transmits a print job not yet processed among the print jobs to the image forming apparatus every time the notice indicating completion of the processing of the print job is received from the image forming apparatus, until the processing of the print data is completed.
However, in the image forming system described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-103966, the server device successively transmits a plurality of sections formed by splitting a print job. When those sections are executed in two image forming apparatuses, a time lag occurs between the time when one of the sections is finished and the time when the other is finished. At the two image forming apparatuses, a plurality of print jobs are not executed in order, and stacks of paper are output in random order and have to be arranged in order.